Energy Systems Catapult collaborated with UK Power Networks under Network Innovation Allowance funding to investigate the effects of future electrification of domestic heating and transport on the peaks in demand that occur after long outages.

With uptake of electric vehicles and electrified heating expected to increase substantially in the coming decades, an extended power outage under severe weather conditions in 2030 – known as a Cold Start – could lead to a demand surge as electrical devices are reactivated, far above today’s peak levels.

Using our innovative EnergyPath® Operations tool, we simulated a portion of UK Power Networks’ electricity network to understand how electricity-consuming appliances would behave after different outage scenarios, and the physical impacts of this behaviour on assets in the network – in terms of power flows, voltages, loading and voltage unbalance.

The results will allow UK Power Networks to plan and operate their network in the face of future low-carbon technology uptake, and pave the way for further work to:

• Identify network areas with high risk of adverse effects from power restoration after Cold Start.
• Evaluate mitigation measures such as operational policies, network controls, demand-side flexibility and conventional reinforcement.
• Explore novel mitigation methods based on in-home appliance flexibility.

Heat-as-a-service is a new model for selling energy, in which consumers buy an energy service tailored to their home and lifestyle instead of paying for units of gas. 

Energy Systems Catapult in conjunction with the Energy Technologies Institute and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, explored the consumer and economic benefits of demand-side management, as well as viable business models such as heat-as-a-service for bringing it to market at scale.

We simulated six months of household energy usage – with and without demand-side management. The Dynamic Energy System Simulation incorporated real-world data on building physics, weather, energy consumption, network capabilities and appliance specifications to create dynamic models of homes, markets, heating systems and consumer behaviour.

Our research confirmed that demand-side management reduces the cost of providing energy. It quantified the savings at 3%, which totals £168 million over six months when scaled up to 28 million UK consumers.  

It also showed that demand-side management reduces peak loads by shifting consumption to times with lower demand – all while guaranteeing (and potentially enhancing) consumer comfort. This means it could help reduce the need for future network reinforcement.